Hit the Bricks
One of the greatest events in the WFU year is coming up in just a few weeks: Hit the Bricks. This is a one-day team race around the Quad to raise money for the Brian Piccolo Cancer Fund. Brian Piccolo was the subject of the great 1971 movie Brian’s Song. (If you have never seen the movie, it is mandatory WFU viewing. Queue it up on your Netflix before Family Weekend!)
The Hit the Bricks website tells the story: “The Brian Piccolo Cancer Drive was established by students in 1980 in memory of Brian Piccolo, a great Wake Forest athlete/alum and Chicago Bears football star who died of cancer. For the past 32 years, Wake Forest students, alumni, and friends have planned and participated in various events to raise funds for cancer research at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Fund has raised more than $1,200,000 for the WFU Cancer Center!
Hit the Bricks was started in 2003. Each year, hundreds of students gather on Hearn Plaza and take turns running laps around the Quad. Throughout the day, participants, volunteers, and passers by enjoy fun activities, live music, special guest speakers, and tons of food. The event concludes with a ceremonial final lap and gathering in front of Wait Chapel for a moment of silence in memory of all those who have lost or are fighting the battle against cancer.”
If your students are not aware of Hit the Bricks, please encourage them to get together and find 7-10 friends to make a team and get involved. This is SUCH a fun day! There is music and activities on the Quad, periodic pep rally type speeches from lots of the campus community, and other students pack the grassy parts of the Quad to watch and cheer on the participants. It’s also a great day for friendly rivalry and bragging rights: some of the teams (both student and administrator) are pretty hardcore, and there is a lot of pride taken in which teams make the Top 10 every hour.
Teams can register online here. The HTB web site also lists the rules and regs.
In 2009, our local newsman and alumnus Cameron Kent (’79) did a piece about Hit the Bricks. Watch it here and get a sense of what the day involves.
Truly, this is one of the greatest, happiest days on campus every year. Your students will have a blast participating, and even better, they will be helping raise money to fight cancer. This is a win-win any way you look at it.